US says Iran players welcome at World Cup amid Italy uproar

The Orlando Magic fended off a late rally by the top-seeded Detroit Pistons to take a surprise 2-1 lead in their NBA playoff series on Saturday.

Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane top-scored for Orlando with 25 points apiece as the eighth-seeded Magic pulled off a stirring 113-105 win in front of their home crowd.

Victory had briefly seemed in doubt after Orlando's 17-point fourth-quarter lead was erased in a powerful late showing by Cade Cunningham, who led all scorers with 27 points.

But having nudged into a single-point lead with three minutes remaining, Detroit did not score again and Orlando closed out the win with a 9-0 run.

With barely 30 seconds remaining, Banchero's three-point effort bounced off the heel, looped up in the air and dropped straight through the net to seal the win.

Banchero added 12 rebounds and nine assists, while Bane matched the Orlando playoff record with seven three-pointers.

"We know how we stack up. We know what we got in this locker room. And so we don't fear them," Banchero said.

Orlando are the lowest-seeded team in the Eastern Conference playoffs, having barely crept in with a last-gasp play-in win over the Charlotte Hornets.

They will have a chance to extend their lead when they host game four on Monday, before the teams travel back to Detroit.

The Pistons comfortably topped the East with a 60-22 regular season record. But they now find themselves needing to win three of the four possible remaining games to avoid elimination.

"We got a lot of respect. We just want to bring it on Monday," said Banchero.

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Workers on Saturday were resurfacing the bottom of Washington's famous Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with "American flag blue"-colored material used in swimming pools, following an order by US President Donald Trump.

The project -- part of the capital city's sprucing up ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary celebrations on July 4 -- will cost about $1.5 million and take roughly three weeks, Trump told reporters Thursday.

The 2,000-foot (610-meter) pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial "was in terrible shape," said Trump, who was a long-time real estate developer before entering politics.

"It was filthy, dirty and it leaked like a sieve for many years," he said in a White House video about the plan.

Built in 1922-1923, the pool has become a key landmark in the US capital. Civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech overlooking the reflecting pool in 1963.

Trump said he rejected a proposal to replace the stone in the bottom, a plan he said would cost $300 million and take three years.

Instead, he contacted contractors he had previously used, and they said using the swimming pool surface would cost much less and be completed in a fraction of the time.

"I've built more than 100 swimming pools in different buildings," Trump told reporters, referring to his project as "a business study."

The contractors have cleaned the bottom and begun pouring the "industrial-grade" substance and will be finished in a matter of days, he said.

"You're going to end up with a beautiful, beautiful reflecting pool, the way it's supposed to be. Much better than it ever was," he said.

Trump has embarked on several other major renovations in Washington, including demolishing the East Wing of the White House, where he aims to build a huge ballroom.

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(The Center Square) – U.S. House Republicans face a daunting legislative to-do list for the week ahead.

The Department of Homeland Security has been shut down for more than 70 days, but House Republicans are still refusing to vote on Senate-passed legislation to reopen it until they see more progress on immigration enforcement funding.

The Senate has already passed a budget resolution laying out the guidelines for a filibuster-proof budget reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Border Patrol for the next three years.

Once the House approves the budget resolution, lawmakers can begin drafting the actual reconciliation bill. Yet that approval is far from certain, as some Republicans wish to tack on other legislative priorities to the bill.

U.S. Reps. Jason Smith, R-Mo., Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and others have argued this might be Republicans’ last chance to muscle through partisan policies before the congressional balance of power potentially changes in November.

In an effort to prevent any more delays on ending the DHS shutdown, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other Republican leadership are open to pursuing a third reconciliation bill to accommodate those requests.

“We’re going to do it as quickly as possible,” Johnson said.

But budget resolution is not the only bill Johnson must convince Republican holdouts to support next week — he must also win them over on reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

The provision allows the federal government to collect the electronic data of foreign actors of concern into a database and access that database without a warrant. However, Americans’ metadata is often swept up in the mix as well, raising concerns about citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights.

Johnson’s most recent efforts to reauthorize the provision dramatically failed in the House, with over a dozen members of his party voting alongside Democrats to tank a proposed 18-month extension as well as a proposed five-year extension.

Despite the blow, the speaker has teed up a three-year extension – without the warrant requirements holdouts have demanded – for floor consideration as soon as Monday. If an extension of some kind does not pass, FISA Section 702 expires April 30.

While all of that is underway, the House will also begin consideration of the five-year Farm Bill, an overdue and critical piece of legislation that supports programs and grants for farmers, rural communities, and American agriculture in general.

In addition, the House Appropriations Committee will continue progress on the 12 annual government funding bills for fiscal year 2027, which begins Oct.1. 

West Ham scored a late winner on Saturday to stay two points clear of Tottenham in the battle to avoid Premier League relegation on a day of breathless drama.

Spurs looked set to escape the bottom three with just minutes remaining after their late goal against Wolves and Everton's equaliser at the London Stadium.

But West Ham substitute Callum Wilson scored a winner in the 92nd minute to restore West Ham's two-point cushion, with just four games to go.

Roberto De Zerbi's Tottenham travelled to already-relegated Wolves without a Premier League win since December but were blunt in attack, mustering just two shots on target in the entire game.

Short of inspiration and confidence, it appeared they were heading for a damaging goalless draw before Joao Palhinha's 82nd-minute goal secured a 1-0 win.

Travelling Spurs fans celebrated wildly when they learned that Everton had levelled in the 88th minute, cancelling out Tomas Soucek's headed opener.

At that stage Spurs were out of the bottom three.

But West Ham were not finished, with Wilson adding a remarkable postscript to lift them back above Tottenham.

"The atmosphere was electric," Wilson told the BBC. "I think the fans and the players have really come together in this period and it has stood us in good stead.

"We're the ones in the driving seat at the moment and if we take care of our own results it should stand us in good stead come the end of the season."

Wolves and Burnley are already down but the race to avoid the final relegation spot has effectively become a two-horse race between Tottenham and West Ham, who have 36 points.

Nottingham Forest, three points ahead, hammered Sunderland 5-0 on Friday to pull well clear of the drop zone.

- Liverpool close in on Champions League -

Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 3-1, getting the better of their opponents for the first time in four meetings this season to climb into fourth place above Aston Villa, who earlier lost 1-0 at Fulham.

Liverpool lost the season-opening Community Shield against Palace on penalties before defeats in the Premier League and League Cup. 

Alexander Isak, who has recently returned to action after fracturing his fibula, scored his first goal for Liverpool since December.

Andy Robertson doubled Liverpool's lead after a slick counter-attacking move.

Daniel Munoz halved the deficit in the second half but Florian Wirtz scored a last-gasp third to restore the home side's two-goal cushion.

Mohamed Salah limped off in the second half at Anfield holding his hamstring with less than a month of his glittering career with the Reds remaining.

Arne Slot's men are now near-certainties to qualify for next season's Champions League, which would be some consolation after a miserable title defence.

They are level on 58 points with Villa and Manchester United -- with all three teams eight points clear of Brighton.

"Our objectives this season have changed due to our form but the Champions League is so important to this football club and we've made a big step," Robertson told Sky Sports.

In the early kick-off on Saturday, Fulham beat Aston Villa to keep their hopes of qualification for Europe alive.

Ryan Sessegnon scored the only goal of the game shortly before half-time after Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins had gone close for Villa.

Arsenal aim to retake top spot from Manchester City when they host Newcastle in the evening kick-off.

The Gunners have seen their nine-point lead vanish in the past two weeks and they are now behind Pep Guardiola's men on goals scored, with both sides level on goal difference

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Top officials in the German government on Saturday blamed Russia for repeated phishing attacks targeting lawmakers and senior administration officials using the Signal messaging app.

"The federal government is assuming that the phishing campaign targeting the Signal messaging service was presumably run from Russia," a government source told AFP.

The source said that the phishing campaign had been stopped.

German prosecutors on Friday launched a spying investigation into the cyberattacks, which had allegedly been directed at MPs from several parties including the speaker of parliament and a senior member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's CDU party.

Civil servants, diplomats and journalists were also targeted.

Germany, Kyiv's biggest provider of military aid, has been battling a surge of cyberattacks, as well as espionage and sabotage plots since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

Moscow denies being behind any such actions.

- Signal hackers -

The attacks work by sending messages purporting to come from Signal support. 

Victims are urged to hand over sensitive account information, which the attackers can then use to gain access to their chat groups and messages.

When the scam is successful, the hackers gain access to photos and files shared on Signal and can also impersonate the person whose account was compromised.

German and foreign security services have been warning for months about the attacks, but the potential fallout in Germany is only just becoming clear.

Many have moved from WhatsApp to the non-profit Signal in recent years because of privacy concerns after WhatsApp said it would share some metadata with parent company Meta, which also owns Facebook and Instagram.

- Hundreds affected? -

The German government has so far not commented on how many of its lawmakers have been affected.

According to Der Spiegel news outlet, at least 300 accounts belonging to political figures were compromised in the phishing campaign. 

Konstantin von Notz, an MP who is deputy chief of the intelligence oversight committee, told AFP Friday that the scale of the suspected attacks was "extremely worrying".

"The number of unreported cases will continue to rise in the coming days," he said.

"At present, no one can say with any certainty whether the integrity of MPs' communications is still guaranteed." 

Russia has been accused of numerous cyberattacks in Western countries. German officials have repeatedly been targeted, including in 2015 when computers belonging to the Bundestag and the office of then‑chancellor Angela Merkel were breached.

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(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump called off a planned diplomatic mission to Pakistan on Saturday, refusing to send his team on what he described as an unproductive 18-hour flight, as Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi departed Islamabad without meeting with American representatives.

Trump confirmed the cancellation in a social media post.

"I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going to Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians," he wrote. "Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, there is tremendous infighting and confusion within their 'leadership.' Nobody knows who is in charge, including them. Also, we have all the cards, they have none!"

Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner had been expected to lead the American delegation in Pakistan. Vice President JD Vance was on standby.

Araghchi had previously said that no meetings with the U.S. had been planned in Islamabad. He departed the city Saturday after meeting with Pakistani officials, including Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, according to Iranian state news agency IRNA.

The cancelled trip marks the second time this week that U.S.-Iran talks have fallen through. Earlier in the week, Trump postponed the original Islamabad meeting, citing a "seriously fractured" Iranian government and requesting that Tehran submit a unified proposal before negotiations proceed.

With a two-week ceasefire set to expire on Tuesday, Trump extended it without setting a new timeline, saying he would not be rushed and that time is not on Iran's side.

The U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports remains in place throughout the ceasefire. Trump has said Iran is losing about $500 million per day in oil sales as a result. Iran's military has warned that if the blockade continues, the U.S. will "face the response of Iran's powerful armed forces."

Trump has said his administration holds the stronger hand in negotiations and is under no pressure to move first.

"If they want to talk, all they have to do is call," the president said.

Since the start of the conflict at the end of February, U.S. gas prices have climbed about $1 per gallon, with the national average recently hitting $4 per gallon. The ongoing conflict has rattled global markets, sending oil prices to their highest levels in years. If hostilities continue, experts warn that economic strain will deepen, further burdening U.S. taxpayers.

With U.S. military operations costing more than $1 billion per day, analysts say a prolonged war could drive a significant increase in defense spending and further impact the federal budget. The Department of War has suggested it could request an additional $200 billion from Congress for the Iran operations.

The U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28 after nuclear talks with the Islamic Republic failed to produce a deal. Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have laid out four military objectives: destroying Iran's missile capabilities, neutralizing its navy, preventing the development of nuclear weapons, and ensuring the regime can't direct terrorism beyond its borders. Trump and Hegseth have said most of those objectives have been accomplished.

Since strikes began, Iran's forensics chief said nearly 3,400 people have been killed inside the country. Almost 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, 32 in Gulf states, and 23 in Israel.

Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed, with two additional deaths from noncombat causes.

GREAT FALLS, Mont. - Get out and run in the Ice Breaker Road Race before Cruisin' the Drag and enjoying mimosas in Great Falls. 

The long-standing Ice Breaker Road Race is coming up Sunday, April 26. If you'd like to run in any of the three races, there's still time to sign up online here. 

Kickoff May with Montana's largest car show, Cruisin the Drag on Central Avenue. Starting in the evening of May 1 is a Poker Run, with the car show taking over Central Avenue on May 2 from 10 am to 3 pm. 

Find out more about participating in Cruisin' the Drag on their website here. 

After all that, you can sit down for a Mimosa on Saturday May 16 with the 7th annual Mimosa Showdown. Plan your showdown by checking out the mimosas in the lineup here. 

A pair of former Mizzou Tigers had their NFL dreams realized in a matter of moments. 

On consecutive picks in the 2026 NFL Draft, former Mizzou edge rusher Zion Young was selected No. 45 overall by the Baltimore Ravens, while former MU linebacker Josiah Trotter was picked by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at No. 46 moments later.

About two hours later, another Tiger was drafted. In the third round, former Mizzou defensive tackle Chris McClellan was selected No. 77 overall by the Green Bay Packers, who traded up seven spots to pick him. 

It didn't take much longer for former MU offensive tackle Keagen Trost to hear his name called, as the Los Angeles Rams took him with the No. 93 overall pick. 

All four players fill immediate and future needs with their new teams. Young will join a Baltimore squad that tallied just 35 sacks in 2025, its fewest in a season since 2010. The Buccaneers needed some linebacker depth following the retirement of longtime starter Lavonte David, while the Packers were extremely thin at nose tackle. Four starters along the Rams offensive line are set to hit free agency in a year, so they could've used some additions to that room. 

Young, who played his high school ball in Atlanta, spent his first two collegiate seasons at Michigan State, appearing in 20 games and logging 47 total tackles and 6.5 tackles for loss. 

He transferred to Mizzou after the 2023 season, which saw former Michigan State head coach Mel Tucker get fired in September. It was a full-circle moment for Young, who verbally committed to MU on a visit in 2021 before signing with the Spartans five days later. 

Young was an immediate contributor in 2024, racking up 42 total tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. His best highlight came late in the regular season against Oklahoma, when he scooped up a fourth-quarter fumble by former OU quarterback Jackson Arnold and returned it for the eventual game-winning touchdown.

2025 saw Young ascend to a top edge rusher in the SEC. His 57 pressures, according to Pro Football Focus, ranked No. 12 nationally among edge rushers and No. 2 in the SEC behind Texas' Colin Simmons. Young also had a team-high 16.5 tackles for loss and 6.5 sacks, which ranked second on the team behind Damon Wilson II. 

Young's draft stock soared after a standout performance at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, where he won American Team Player of the Game, along with being one of the top practice players in the days leading up to the game. 

After transferring from West Virginia following two seasons with the Mountaineers, Trotter led Mizzou in tackles this past fall and was one of the best run-defending linebackers in college football. 

At West Virginia, a knee injury sidelined Trotter for his entire true freshman season in 2023, but he bounced back in a major way, ranking second on the Mountaineers in total tackles in 2024. He earned Big 12 Defensive Freshman of the Year and All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honors.   

McClellan transferred from Florida to Mizzou after the 2023 season and became an integral part of MU's defense over the following two campaigns. In 2025, he set career highs in total tackles (48), tackles for loss (8) and sacks (6). Like Young, McClellan also had a strong performance at the Senior Bowl. 

He's the second player in the last two years to transfer from Florida to Mizzou and get selected by the Packers in the third round of the NFL Draft — former MU linebacker Ty'Ron Hopper, who's still with Green Bay after being picked by them in 2024, went down the same path.

Trost transferred to MU after the 2024 season following stints at Morgan State, Indiana State and Wake Forest. He won the starting right tackle job last spring and was the highest-graded offensive tackle in the FBS this past season.

The army in junta-ruled Mali on Saturday  battled "terrorist groups" it said had launched attacks across the west African nation stricken by more than a decade of jihadist conflict.

Witnesses reported fighting in the capital Bamako and other key cities in the landlocked nation where the military seized power in coups in 2020 and 2021.

An army statement said: "Terrorist groups, not yet identified, early this morning targeted certain points and barracks in the capital and the interior."

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attacks. But jihadists had already tried last year to cripple the capital by cutting off its fuel supply.

Fighting was reported in Bamako, the northern cities of Gao and Kidal and the central city of Sevare.

Heavy gunfire was also heard at Kati, in the Bamako suburbs, where military ruler General Assimi Goita has his residence, witnesses said.

Kati residents put images on social media showing their homes destroyed. "We are holed up in Kati," one resident told AFP.

Helicopters buzzed over Bamako, notably around the international airport.

The streets of the capital were deserted amid sporadic firing, an AFP correspondent reported.

- Jihadist turmoil -

Mali has resources including gold and other valuable minerals. But since 2012, it has grappling with a security crisis over attacks by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group and community-based criminal groups and separatists.

The military government, like its counterparts in neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso, has severed ties with former colonial ruler France and several Western countries, to move closer politically and militarily to Russia.

It has also been criticised for restricting the media and silencing opposition activists. Goita's administration has banned political parties.

The junta had pledged to hand over power to civilians by March 2024 but in July 2025, it granted Goita a five-year presidential term, renewable "as many times as necessary" and without an election.

US President Donald Trump's administration has sought to establish contacts with the three juntas, however, while Togo has sought to act as an intermediary between Western nations and the three countries, which have formed their own Alliance of Sahel States.

Thousands of people have died in attacks in Mali since the jihadist turmoil erupted and tens of thousands of Malians have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, including Mauritania, in recent years.

Russia's Wagner Group, which had been fighting with Malian forces against jihadists since 2021, announced the end of its mission in June 2025, and has become the Africa Corps, an organisation under the direct control of the Russian defence ministry.

Since September, jihadists from the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, an Al-Qaeda affiliate known by its Arab acronym JNIM, have been attacking fuel tanker convoys, bringing the capital Bamako to a standstill at the height of the crisis in October.

Despite several months of calm, Bamako residents faced a diesel shortage in March, with fuel prioritised for use in the energy sectoring.

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Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least six people, officials said Saturday, most of them in an attack on a residential building in the eastern city of Dnipro.

"The Russians' tactics remain unchanged: attack drones, cruise missiles and a significant amount of ballistic missiles," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"Most of the targets are ordinary infrastructure in cities. Residential buildings, energy facilities and businesses have been damaged," he said.

Four people were killed and 27 wounded in one overnight strike on an apartment block in Dnipro, Oleksandr Ganzha, head of Drinpropetrovsk regional military administration said on Telegram.

A later strike on another apartment building in the city, killed one person and wounded seven, he said.

"The Russians hit the same residential neighbourhood as the one targeted overnight," Ganzha said.

In the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, one person was killed and four wounded by a Russian drone hit on a civilian minibus, the head of the region's administration, Ivan Fedorov, said on Telegram.

Zelensky said the incessant Russian strikes on civilian targets required a strong response from Ukraine's allies, especially in Europe.

"Every such strike should serve as a reminder to our partners that the situation requires immediate and firm action, and the rapid strengthening of our air defence," he said.

- EU sanctions -

He urged the European Union to impose even more sanctions on Russia.

The plea came two days after EU leaders approved a long-stalled 20th sanctions round against Russia that target the banking sector and add new restrictions on exports of Russian oil.

That package had been blocked for months by Hungary's Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, who was voted from power two weeks ago. The EU also approved a 90-billion-euro ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine intended to strengthen its defences and cover state expenditures for the 2026–2027 period.

Almost every day since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, civilians have been killed in Ukraine in Russian bombardments. 

Ukrainian drone attacks over the past 24 hours injured one person in Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, governor Alexander Khinshtein announced Saturday on Max. 

The governor for Russia's neighbouring Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a woman was killed and a man seriously wounded in a drone attack on a car, and a man driving a tractor was wounded in another strike.

Diplomatic efforts to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II are at a standstill with US mediation efforts diverted by the outbreak of the Middle East war in February. 

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